Threatening DVLA notice on german registered car

I would think it is either a prank or the DVLA chap did not notice the German plates.

However, this may be a scare campaign as we all know, especially if you drive in London, that there are more and more foreign registered cars....and they can't all be driven by bonafide tourists.

The problem for the DVLA is we have no civilian register as in Sweden, Denmark - the authorities have no idea when you came here to settle.

So they bluff you, perhaps, with this. You get scared, you seek advice....they then tell you the car needs registering here in so many weeks as your tourist status is up or whatever, you feel they now know where you are...the DVLA and Gordon get their taxes.

This is the same way this ' a British citizen may not drive an EU car ' works. This is only true if you are a resident here and doing the same, potentially, as those above - driving a French car permanently to avoid taxes and MOTs.

You can drive a relatives car from the EU for a while( so long as you have insurance and this is unlikely ), you can be British and drive a French car SO LONG as France is considered your normal place of abode. I believe that means you live in France for 181 days in any year.

As said, what pees the authorities off here is they cannot find out when you came here, if you have been in France etc etc - so they will scare you into taking care of it.

If the OP normally lives in Germany and the car is taxed, MOTd and insured as in Germany, he is not liable to pay one cent in taxes to our authorities. Period.

The Italian insurance will have an address on it that the insurance company think the vehicle is kept at. If this address is in Italy and not where you are currently keeping the vehicle in the UK, you may well be uninsured, both in the UK and Italy. May well be worth checking if you are insured to keep the vehicle in another country as a resident.

Well, as long as you are sure. IME it is very unusual for an Italian insurance company to cover a vehicle taken abroad by someone with residential UK status and keep it there for more than a few weeks. (I used to live in Liguria, near Ventimiglia)

I checked my policy small print. I phone them up too. They tell me what I already know here.. that my policy will cover me for 6 month abroad only. I do suspect this to be univeral case amongst these firms. I have car insured with Fortis.. we have one with NU . one with Zurich .. one with Cornhill .. one with NIG. They all telling us the same here on phone

Please check policy details. I not want you to get wrath of ANPR here. I not wish s8ch on anyone.

Thank you adam i'll keep my eyes open and keep you updated on my side... i;ve actually think they want to scare you to invite you to come along and register as they cant do much or they will have to record the car for six months in a row?

Hi Adam et al,

I found this thread on google after having the exact same problem.

Our German registered car had the DVLA notice attached to it a couple of weeks ago following a long dispute with our council. It has had a residents permit issued to it for 3 years, but strangely this year the council refused to renew it citing that it is no longer possible to issue residents permits to foreign registered cars. This is despite the fact that the car is regularly out of the UK, but as we have a UK base we naturally want to be able to park outside our house.

Being a lawyer, I took the matter into my own hands and threatened judicial review against the council for breaching our European Fundamental Freedoms. I was quite surprised when they backed down with a couple of weeks and apologised for the inconvenience, and prompty issued a new resident's permit.

Now we have the same battle with the DVLA it seems. Yesterday our car was issued with the second DVLA 'penalty notice'.

I would be interested in discussing strategies with other motorists who have the same problem. My feeling is that the efforts at the DVLA should be aimed more at harmonisation of european traffic laws with the goal of us all being able to keep and drive our cars in whichever county we choose (and obviously with cross border enforcement of penalties). The current system is nonsense at best, and now with the DVLA's new enforcement campaign- potentially illegal (in addition to European freedom of movement principals, I believe harrassment can also be cited).

Once thing which would be worth doing for all affected motorists is to make a Freedom of Information request and Data Protection Subject Access Request against the DVLA to get access to the information they hold on you.

I look forward to continuing this discussion.

hey teppa,

I think I've found the article you are refering to:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7670838.stm

Best thing to do is keep all your documentation accessible at all times- including any ferry tickets. What the polish driver in the news story should have done was get into his car as it is illegal to remove a car which is occupied.

What I don't understand in the article is that the polish guy was asked to pay £260 for the clamping and removal and then 6 months road tax? Surely they would have also required him to register the car in the UK? I for one don't mind paying road tax in the UK as well as Germany as it would buy me peace of mind.

What is out of the question is registering the car in the UK, as:

a) like you, it doesn't belong to me- it belongs to my father-in-law.

b) to go through the registration process I believe the dashboard would need changing to miles and also the lights would need changing to UK spec. This is expense I would obviously like to avoid, as it would have to be reversed as soon as the car returned to Germany.

c) I believe there is a matter of principle at stake here- namely, that we should be able to freely move between countries within the EU and bring our vehicles with us. If vehicle tax and traffic enforcement were harmonised then there would not be a problem.

I'm going to continue driving here on foreign plates and not worry about things too much- should I run into problems, then I'll take the DVLA to the European Court. Historically they have looked favourably on individuals whose lives have been made difficult by government agencies trying to trump EU principals of free movement with national interests such as raising tax revenue or overcoming logistical issues of cross-border enforcement.

Meanwhile if you want to know what information the DVLA hold about you- you should file a Data Subject Access Request and also a Freedom of Information request stating that you want them to give you all information they currently hold on you and your vehicle.

Monstermercedes,

Great to have you onboard and thanks for your contribution.

To go back to your earlier point about residents parking, I had no problem whatsoever about getting a permit...so I guess it just depends on your council.

The link you provided (bbc article) was very useful. I think the DVLA should be applauded for trying to crack down on some of the down right dangerous illegal vehicles in the uk. But targeting cars which are clearly taxed and in good conditon such as mine, yours, teppa and many others Im sure is not the way to go about it. (though they (the DVLA) stress in the article they are trying not to do so).

Either way its the hassle and the small worry of returning to your car being lifted onto a tow truck which is pi$$ing me off.

We will have to see, how it pans out I suppose,

best,
adam

But hey ho - PC camera just needs a few watts fed in - PC pLOD NEEDS A WAGE /HOUSING ALLOWANCE ETC and so the bean counters opt for the(seemingly ) cheaper option - never mind global warming ,or how does PC camera arrest crooks /give a sense of security to sensitave areas . PC PLOD has no problems with hoodies - he has a look inside -something PC Camera can't do . Problem is that the TOOL has taken over .Likewisewhen beat police need a vehicle, is it because their bosses have lost touch with reality and have made the beat too big for sensible policing .